Sítio Terra Abençoada, Aiuruoca, Brazil, 50ha

Hello Permies!

Im Gabriel, and in this topic i will post some news and fotos of our project named Sitio Terra Abençoada (Blessed Earth Farm).

Our Land is located 18km from the city of Aiuruoca, in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil..Its 50ha in size, mainly forests and emerging forests with some open areas that we keep open for our agricultural needs.. Altitude from 1200m to 1500m, in a valley between 2 mountains that are 1800. Near by there are mountains that are 2300m high and a bit further 3000m +.We gave got hot rainy summers (main growing season) and cold winters.. it can get to 0 Celcius at night. Annual rainfall is around 2000mm , but the last 3 years we got very dry years.. Our climate allows us to grow tropical plants and temperate climate plants..

I got in contact with Permaculture in 2010 and in 2011 i did my PDC with Jorge Timmermann, since then im working with nature and learning more and more..
I also made a Agrofloresta (Food Forest, Ernst Götsch style) course and a natural building course (building with raw earth)

We have lots of fruit trees growing, over 250.. some old trees were already there .
Avocados, Mango, Bananas, Lychees, Oranges,Mandarines, Lemons, Plums, Peaches, Atemoya, Acerola, pomegranate, Papaya, Pitanga, Medlar, Apples, Pear, Kiwi, Blueberry, Raspberrys, Mulberrys, Nectarine, Figs, khaki, Macadamia, Pecan Nut, Walnut, Olive trees, Cherry, Chest Nut, Apricot, Almond, Araucarias (the only native pine tree of Brazil, provides us with lots of pinhoes), Neem, Bamboo, Giant Bamboo, Coffe,

I dont know if I included all of the useful trees that we harvest or will harvest..
Not to mention the Trees for Wood /timber uses..

Our mainly crops are:
Cassava, Yam , Taro, Yakon, Sweet Potato, Potato, Lots of beans , Azuki beans, Corn, Rice, Chia, Amaranth, Ginger, Curcuma, pumpkin, Chayote, tomatos and other vegetables, and kitchen garnden stuff, like salads etc..

At the moment we are focusing at building.. the house of my father we are finishing and im starting my house that will have a reciprocal frame green roof, with wood structure and hyperadobe and adobe walls

Here are some fotos

Foto taken from the top of one mountain of our valley.. thats the boundrys.. we are a forest spot in the middle of overgrazed milk cows pasture.. Thats the main land use here in the ares.. Since its a mountain area with slopes it causes lots of erosions.. see pic.


Thats the house im going to starting to build this year.. you dont need architects and license to build in rural areas here.. so its free to build how you want..


Dry Corn Flowers and our big thermal mass buddy.. it faces the sun and heats the valley..


7year old avocado tree grown from the seed with bananas and pomergranate and vines and macadamia


direct seeded no till chia field with citrus and bananas


tumeric and flowers


this is the house that my father designed.. half conventional half natural building.. from left to right at the upper half, COB, Pau-a-Pique (wattle and daub) and adobe, natural plaster.. etc... at the front is a 3 year old Araucaria pine tree..


Black Beans climbing the bamboo tops and corn..


Swales and corn


When i have time i will post more fotos .. hope you enjoy, feel free to coment

permacultural hugs

Gabriel

This looks amazing!

hi,

here are some more fotos

newborn herb spiral that i made just after my PDC, i thought "since I am now a Permie with PDC ive got to have a Herb Spiral!" hahah


this is the beggining.. left, the little house and right the place where they usually molk the cows


banana nanica, " mini banana" with big yields


chicken tractor


Organic Haribo´s , Raspberrys




our first dam, that we use also as a bamboo water treatment tank, there is a constant stream..


black bean forest , it gets bigger


Castanho carrying 6 bags of cow manure


there were already lots of taros and sweet potatos growing in the land when we bought it.. We got so amazed that we harvested 5 wheelbarrows of yams.. hang them to dry a little and started eating them every day in different forms until we got saturated , haha


hügelbeet and bamboo nursery


mixed garden and maracuja (passion fruit) climbing in the balcony


"watcha lookin at?!"


Valley guardian "pico mato grosso"


Valley guardian "pico do muquem"

soon we will be open to recieve Wwoofers

what beauty! a joy to behold! thanks for the pics and best wishes for abundance

fukuoka style rice plantation in Sítio Terra Abençoada!

english subtitles available

If anyone wants to WWOOF , welcome

rice

Amazing and beautiful!  Muito Bom!